A photographic diary of a birdwatcher. Travelling the world so you don't have to.

Monday, 23 December 2013

Pilanesberg National Park, Johannesburg, December 2013

Pilanesberg National Park was busy today. A weekend during the school holidays is
always likely to be busy, but rightly so, Pilanesberg is a wonderful place. It
covers over 500 square kms so even the main roads were quiet enough to allow a
bird watcher to stop and enjoy the bird song of a southern spring. The hides
were popular with families but the children were, without fail, very well
behaved.

I was late at the gate which had been
open for an hour already. Southern
Masked-weavers had formed a colony beside the booth and were my first birds
of a list that included 95 species. An unmade road turns off from the
tarmac a short way beyond Bakubung Gate.
A Groundscraper Thrush vied with a Zebra for my attention, but the Zebra
won.

Lark song filled the air with the Rufous-crested Lark immediately
recognisable; a clear 3- noted slur with a flap of the wings for added
interest.

I was surprised to see a flock of Maribou Storks (what is the venary term
for Maribou Storks? Perhaps a vigil?). One confronted a juvenile African Fish Eagle which had come to
ground beside Lengau Dam. There was a slight altercation before the eagle
backed off and left the stork to gulp down a disembodied wing. African
Fish-Eagles will take ducks and have often been seen hunting through large
flocks of flamingo. This young eagle may have taken to supplementing its diet
until it can perfect its hunting technique to catch its more traditional diet.
In North America (please correct me if I am wrong), Bald Eagles feed either
exclusively on fish or feather, but seldom mix the two. I wonder if African
Fish Eagles make similar diet choices.

In the distance a group of 5 White Rhino grazed peacefully on the
lush grass. There has been some rain and the park looked as green as I have
ever seen it. I headed back onto the
main road and made for the hide at Mankwe Dam. The water level was lower than
my last visit, so the kingfishers didn’t put on such a show, but a Barn Owl was seen, roosting in the
thatch.

At the Pilanesberg Centre, a group of
young male Impalas had been
attracted by the salt lick. They gather in groups like this when they are
driven from their parental herds and spend time amongst their peers, sparring
and practicing their claims to be a breeding male. A shoving session broke out
and provided an exciting distraction over breakfast.

I had intended to take a gentle drive
up to the hill overlooking the dam and spend the heat of the day taking it easy
at the Fish Eagle Picnic Site. On the way, I spotted a large bull Elephant
moving away from the dam and was able to get ahead of him as he came to the
road. He looked quite grumpy and I was pleased to be ahead of him in case his
temper flared.

A notice at the picnic site (which is enclosed by a mesh fence
to cage the humans in the animals’ habitat), informed me that it was shut due
to an Elephant infestation. Sure enough a section of the fence had been
trampled making it possible for any humans inside to escape into the wild.

The hide at Dithabaneng took
preference as my rest stop for the heat of the day, but elephants were to
thwart that idea too. A small herd of around a dozen were seen very close to
the road with a very tiny calf. This looked like the same herd that I had seen
on my last visit, but the baby was, if anything, even smaller. On both
occasions, I found the herd in the same area of the park and in both cases, the
mother cow was radio-collared. I will try to compare the photos from the two
encounters.

I had been having difficulty catching
the light this week and during this encounter, my pictures were all
ridiculously over-exposed, so I have converted this shot to monocolour in an
attempt to save it.

In the middle of the road a tiny
snake coiled and writhed. I suspect that it might have been run over by a car. Any suggestons for a name will be eagerly received.I have in on good authority from various members of the Snakes of South Africa Group, that this fella is a Striped Skaapsteker,Psammophalax tritaeniatus. Thank you to Kobus Seegers, Jacobus Ferreira, Rian Stander, Daniel Louw and an enthusiastic stab from Wendy Fox.At Rothlogo Dam a Hippo had hauled up
directly beneath the viewing opening, allowing the closest view I might ever
wish to have of a wild one.

Rains have come to Johannesburg, and
the animals have been birthing there for a while already. The Impala lambs in
Pilanesberg, 120 miles to the west of the city, are much smaller as the rain
came later and the mothers retained their young until conditions were suitable.

A fantastic storm raged on the way
home. Lightning flashed across the sky, but I couldn’t catch it as well as I
had hoped. The hills of the Magaliesberg held the rains in the east, so this
might be the reason why the animals here are younger than the ones to the west.